Over a thousand local government craftworkers will take strike action later this month in a dispute over pay and attacks on their conditions.

The craftworkers who predominantly undertake local authority housing maintenance and repair work are employed at Bristol, Southwark, Stoke-on-Trent, Newham, Leeds and Babergh and Mid Suffolk councils.

The workers will strike on 17,18, 23 and 24 June.

Attacks on pay and conditions

The dispute is a result of the 2025 local government pay offer to Red Book workers (local government craftworkers). The employer offered a paltry 3.2 per cent increase (following over a decade of pay freezes and below inflation increases) but also linked it to a series of attacks on the national agreement including the removal of apprentices from the agreement and a move to job evaluation. The local government job evaluation process is detrimental to local government craftworkers and fails to award them for their skills and abilities.

Workers have had enough 

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Local government workers have had enough. Years of poor pay increases and freezes has undermined their earnings and is driving living standards down. The attacks on their national agreement, designed to make them even poorer in the future is totally unacceptable.
 
“Unite backs its members 100 per cent and that commitment totally applies to our members in local government.”
 

Targeted strikes

The strike action is of a targeted nature and a greater number of local authorities could join the dispute in the future.
 
Unite is calling for a fully structured review of the local government pay spine and for the existing agreement to be fully protected. The local government employers have refused to negotiate.
 

Employers treating workers with contempt

Unite national officer Jason Poulter said: “The local government employers have brought this dispute on themselves in the high handed and dismissive way they have treated proposed peace talks. Their contempt for highly skilled dedicated craftworkers has been demonstrated by their refusal to negotiate.
 
“The strike action will inevitably cause severe disruption to the lives of council tenants needing repairs and maintenance work. Even at this late stage the dispute can be resolved by the employers entering negotiations with realistic proposals to resolve this dispute.”

ENDS
 
Notes to editors

For media enquiries ONLY please contact Unite senior communications advisor Barckley Sumner on 07802 329235.

Email: barckley.sumner@unitetheunion.org

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Unite is the UK and Ireland’s leading union fighting to protect and advance jobs, pay and conditions for members working across all sectors of the economy. The general secretary